A New Year's Serve

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BAM! Forehand

Take racket back farther to reintroduce down and up into the BAM.

On down the racket mondoes. On forward and up the racket wipes. The single BAM then decelerates to knuckles against opposite ear.

If there were no roll/wipe, would blood more effectively try to centrifugate? ("Centrifugate" needs to be a verb in tennis language whether it already exists or doesn't-- it doesn't.)

Probably. So that's the channel for adjustment of the unusually fast action of this forehand: where blood does not quite try to spurt from one's fingertips.

Note: I'm lacking the plug-in I need right now to see the last video of Kyle's forehand in YOUR STROKES: KYLE LACROIX FOREHAND. Nevertheless, get that video up on your screen, reader. I'm thinking a left right left of my feet while floating the racket. If one can be that deliberate in last instant body turn one can probably time this shot even for the usual tennis emergency when there are fewer microseconds with which to work.

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Chord Backhand Evolution

The chord is a note that needs to be struck with masterful precision.

And doubles is a miserable medium for the introduction of any new shot. The repetition in singles is far better. On the other hand I don't play singles any more so have to make due with what I've got.

Add to this some physical problems along with transition from indoors to outdoors and three partners who know one's game too well and therefore isolate one all the time mostly with boring if well struck lobs.

The answer of course is more drifts, shifts and poaches and to practice incessantly one's overhead, i.e., to become an activist rather than a slowly developing target. (Thank you, Steve, for pointing out this inherent risk in a certain kind of unfun doubles.)

On the other hand I really want to see my chord backhand work.

This may not be entirely rational since every backhand I hit is sliced in the best doubles I currently can play.

So first day outside was not a personal success for me, just for the other three players.

The Kordite Chord, although a perfectly good service return, traveled too low, in fact landed short or too close to the line or was struck late or (ahem) even went into the net.

I therefore propose for myself less or no secondary roll in the latter three fourths of the execution.

Initial roll with elbow held back and down and in to take care of all discovery of pitch.

A greater emphasis on same contact point every time (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqpARpkF8WA).

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Why Do Many Male Tennis Players Now Wear a Vertical Stripe on their Back?

Is it to show that they have a spine? But I thought they do have a spine.

Why do many female tennis players now wear the same pattern and even same color as their opponents? Is it to show that they have a spine?

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Rules for Living Well

Open snail mail once a month.

Constantly invent new tennis strokes.

But settle on Petr Korda's backhand.

Who should not be a national hero in his own country if he can do this? http://chronicle.augusta.com/sports/...alian-open#%29

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The Grandpop Pushing a Baby Carriage

Ono, a baby was involved this time. Fortunately, the babe was too young to speak English and therefore could not have apprehended the import of my words although I am sure they made him or her uneasy.

"You need somebody to hit those shots back," the grandpop said.

"No I don't, thank you," I said. "That will be tomorrow when I play tennis. I'm practicing today, thank you."

Silence. Only the sound of turning carriage wheels.

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Simpler than You and Me

In self-feed today we'll start with Kordite Cord of Wood backhands, making sure to keep slightly rolling elbow set at navel as still as one's unbelieving head.

Word of the excellence of this shot will quickly become "viral" and two-handers won't exist.

Neither shall the complicated one-handers of the stars. Petr Korda was ahead of his time. No one could understand. Here he is again (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqpARpkF8WA).

In 1938 three-gear ratio in serve, instead of 10, 40, 80 try for 20, 10, 60. No more decels! But the 10 includes hearty arm extension.

We like to hit our McEnruefuls entirely solid. This dictates a more forward placement of the arm, in order to shorten the Dry Bones song, at end of the backswing. While the footbone is connected to the anklebone, the handbone to the fingerbones, we don't want something as long as Donald Trump's wall or the Titanic's kinetic anchor chain.

The principle we shall use is from Stanley Plagenhoef. There shall be independent arm swing in our McEnrueful occurring only after contact in order to relieve pressure on the shoulder. Where that superfluous arm goes shan't matter very much either.

"And I have the kickshawe as good as any man in Illyria," Sir Andrew Aguecheek says, over and over, for 413 years.

That leaves only one's most staple shot, in my case my BAM forehand, but only for reflection, not for change. Is it raining? Yes it is. ("For the rain it raineth every day.") Are my tennis balls old? Yes they are. Is my tennis racket strung with natural gut? No it is not.

ADDENDUM: Do Petr Korda and Ivan Lendl have daughters who play high level golf? Yes they do. Do daddies teach their kids sports? Yes they do. Do tennis players know what they're talking about? Rarely but sometimes.

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Where is Hand at Beginning of the Korda Chord?

The hand is behind the body, elbow near midline or navel.

The shot is a chord because it's musical.

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Korda Chorda Long Cord

Korda keeps elbow in even if he rolls it in further. It either changes position or it doesn't but can roll in either case.

He keeps his elbow in. Try keeping it in a single place until you (I) let it go.

I did. sensational.

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How Long is the Cord in a Korda Chord?

This one-hand backhand is more stripped down to its essence than any other I know.

And judging from the huge sweep built into his forehand Petr Korda probably values sweep on his backhand side too.

How should one make one's sweep longer then and at which end or both?

One could extend sweep toward the net by continuing roll until racket tip points on a perpendicular to the net as in a Stanley Plagenhoef backhand (post # 3031-- simplebackhand.pdf, 7 views. That certainly leads to a great feeling followthrough off to the right that returns weight to one's back foot. In my blinkered, Trump-like view, anyone is a nut who doesn't examine that. Which means that only 7 persons weren't nuts.)

But the brevity of Korda's finish at net end is one of his famous backhand's prime virtues. So let's examine extension of sweep at the beginning of the stroke instead.

Right now if we roll elbow down while simultaneously straightening arm at the elbow we give up some tract.

The racket may come around more than we want.

So let's not do that but rather hold hand back as it rolls down. If nothing else this is an interesting idea at least to me. Elbow rolls down as hand rolls down in such a way that it stays back. The racket head swings while the racket butt spears-- a contradiction only if we don't know how to freeze time.

Now we test the notion against Korda by watching video of him hitting his backhand and see that yes that's what he's doing too.

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Petr Korda Backhand Continued

Somebody in the world comes up with a brilliant shot. Only a nitwit would not like to imitate it if he or she could.

So why can't anybody hit a backhand like Petr Korda? Because he's all personal style. Because he is a genius, unlike you or me. Because he's a great athlete which again makes him different from you and me.

Note how this line of thought relentlessly strives to put you and me down, the prime characteristic of that demented sector of the world populace that has throughout history indulged itself in superiority complex.

There may be something however in the specifics of the above expressed dark view. Maybe we just don't have it when it comes to Petr Korda. You'll note, reader, that even in this video, Petr Korda's son has a two-handed backhand. Imitate him if you want (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqpARpkF8WA). Me, I'll take the other guy.

It was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who had the most uncommon take on genius, who believed that genius was simpler than you or me. Goethe was a tennis instructor from the date he was born (https://www.google.com/search?q=Joha...utf-8&oe=utf-8) in that he could admire and discover and seize simplicity as a baby and then a kid.

Let's choose kid over baby in our worthy effort to replicate Korda's backhand. We've tried and failed so many times. But might, just possibly might have failed through trying too hard.

We take bent arm up and back with strings slightly open. That means we get to roll arm a little more than the fellow who insists on keeping strings square to the ball through every inch of his forward stroke.

We'll do that-- keep strings square or even egged a bit-- in constant pitch through latter three-fourths of the stroke.

In the beginning however we'll keep elbow back while straightening and rolling it, which depending on our best discovered grip will bring the racket head around to desired setting in a big hurry.

Note: Most one-handers roll backward before they swing forward-- not Korda. He simply sets the racket, waits until he is ready, rolls to start his swing, and rolls at a slower rate to keep his racket head at single pitch.

Why criticize Thiem, Lendl, Wawrinka and even Roger Federer? They and quite a few others have great one-handed backhands although more complex and not as elegant as Korda's.

Now don't tell me, reader, that Korda took drugs and had a funnily shaped head. You and I, reader, don't need any distraction, thank you.

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One Question Only

Is Petr Korda's racket open at the top of his backhand backswing? Answer: Yes it is.

Note: I am currently having trouble with this computer. To test my answer then, put these words on the url line of a search engine: "Petr Korda hitting with his son."

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Corkscrew from Above; Corkscrew from Below

Both of these one-hand backhands-- if employing Budgian diagonal thumb across back of handle-- consists of big roll in first fourth of the swing to get racket head moving faster and farther than hand, then, in latter three fourths thumb goes toward the target or slightly above it as an aiming device that also fosters consistency.

The arm straightens, in first fourth, as it rolls. The thumb trick in latter three-fourths recalls the early Vic Braden cue in which someone draws an X on the ball of one's thumb and then keeps the X going toward the target in continuance of the shot.

That is a cue one is not likely to come across in teaching paraphernalia other than the magic markers of Vic Braden. People like to think of Vic as goofy and dismissible when in fact he was goofy and most likely a genius.

Agree or not, reader, concede that keeping the X toward the target results in small roll to follow big roll.

My term "corkscrew" derives from the phenomenon of the elbow rotating (forward) as it straightens (forward). One needs to be relaxed while doing this. We wouldn't want the elbow joint to do something for which it wasn't built.

The corkscrew from above somewhat resembles that of Petr Korda. The backswing feels golfy. The followthrough feels roofy.

The corkscrew from below starts with elbow twisted up rather than down. In first example the elbow twists up as part of leveling process in the one-piece swing. In second example-- from below-- the elbow does the opposite thing, i.e., rolls down (most likely but not necessarily while staying in place).

A single one-hander is difficult enough for anybody, but I have just added two for myself. In addition, I have a drive backhand imitating my slice only with strong grip along with slightly lower backswing as the difference. Finally, I have the Stanley Plagenhoef backhand available as an exquisitely delayed passing shot.

Too much to think about? No doubt. Better tennis probably comes about from concentration on a single backhand the way Viktor Roubanov in the UK focuses almost exclusively on forehand when he teaches anybody tennis. That keeps tennis interesting but I am out to keep life interesting.

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Where Do You Live?

(http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...B1stSFront.mov).

What's your address? Address here is a tiny bit to the right. Waggle is a tiny bit to the left. Address a tiny bit to the right means that when waggle returns racket to address there will be a slightly different angle as racket goes down and turns out to point at rear fence. One will not have to turn strings out quite as much as one would with racket placed directly in front of one or worse to the left of one.

Is this a "stupid little thing" we love so much? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Depends where it leads.

Note: As I look again, I see less turning out of the strings than in the rear view video I have invoked so often. A discrepancy to explore? We need to be surprised, don't you know. At the beginning of the rear view video (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...DB1stSRear.mov) where exactly does the racket tip of Don Budge point? At the net post? I would say to the right of that.

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The Other Video

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DB1stSFront.mov

You can certainly see the three gears. And how the shoulders wind back the hips. And how the hips then go ahead of the shoulders. And a lot else if you work on it.

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Resumption of Invention

We sold two pianos (Steinways), so the estate sale Hope ran was a success even before it started. Got some nice clothes and shoes, too, and from down in the basement a bin full of old new Penn tennis balls. Will see if they have any bounce. Sold the pool table from down there too. Am glad it won't be me today who has to moosh it, in pieces, through a door and up a concrete staircase.

Time now to return to stroke innovation with a vengeance.

I feel that all tennis strokes are in constant flux, and one should always look for new ways to view them at least with the thought of sparking them up.

Changing or re-tooling strokes is another matter, but as you already know, reader, I like that too and quite a lot.

Note: Extremely senior tennis can be extremely hazardous. Ernie, an esteemed and very quick member of our group got surprised at the net last week. He was playing on lousy clay. As he tried to go back for the overhead his feet slipped out from under him. Instead of rolling like a paratrooper he stuck out both hands behind him and shattered both arms, had all kinds of surgery, didn't even want to come to the breakfast we had to celebrate the end of our indoor season.

"In one second my life completely changed," he said.